pedicab/cargo-bike to make a living in North America?

wrote:

anyone in North America earns their living with a pedicab or
cargo-bike?

Here's the link to one of the Victoria BC companies:

http://kabukikabs.com/index.php

Matt O.

Mitch Haley writes:

Bikes and drays are pretty much the only transport on Macinac Island, Michigan,
but most of the bikes are rentals, most all of the work is done by horses.

Of course, that's artificially created demand--motor vehicles
aren't permitted on Mackinac Island.
--
Ben Pfaff
email:
web: http://benpfaff.org

writes:

anyone in North America earns their living with a pedicab or
cargo-bike?

I've seen them mostly in tourist areas, such as on the Las Vegas
Strip (in particular inside the Desert Passage mall at the
Aladdin). Given the rates charged I wouldn't doubt there are
some folks making a living that way.
--
Ben Pfaff
email:
web: http://benpfaff.org

In article .com,
"JeffWills" writes:


wrote:
anyone in North America earns their living with a pedicab or
cargo-bike?

Ask Pedalers Express in Eugene, Oregon:
http://members.efn.org/~cat/pedex/index.htm

I think there's a similar business in Portland, but I couldn't find
them on the web. I've definitely seen their cargo bike in downtown,
though.

Here's another interesting pedicab-related site:
http://www.pedicab.com/

Click on the "Pedicab World Wide" button, and some
pictures and place names come up.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

wrote:

anyone in North America earns their living with a pedicab or
cargo-bike?

I have seen plenty of working pedicabs in tourist-heavy areas where the
attractions are closely spaced. Something tells me that most of the
guys I see driving them are also woking elsewhere to fill out their
incomes, though.

I expect that anywhere you can find horse-drawn carriages for hire, a
pedicab driver could make a decent business if he were sufficiently
motivated.

Chalo Colina

Mitch Haley wrote:
on Macinac Island, Michigan,
[...] most all of the work is done by horses.

I recall reading an article in _Mother Earth News_ a number of years
ago which claimed that oxen are the most cost-effective way to till
farms of less than 5 acres.

It's not unbeleivable, but I rather imagine that attaining full
efficiency of draft animals takes many years of experience.

There's actually a number of old folks still available in America who
do have the experience, but how many of the wannabe Rainbow-Warrior
city kids really are prepared to apprentice themselves to
fundamentalist baptist families in nowheresville, Tennessee, to learn
the tricks of the trade?

The old folks would have to give the city kids low-end apprentice
farmhand wages for a few years, because that's all inexperienced
farmhands are worth.

There might be a school.

On 4 Jun 2005 02:36:50 -0700, wrote:

anyone in North America earns their living with a pedicab or
cargo-bike?

There are pedicabs in NYC, and there have been for several years. See:

http://www.times-up.org/pedicabs.php
http://www.manhattanrickshaw.com/
http://www.nybiketours.com/

More at: http://www.google.com/search?q=NYC+pedicabs

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On 4 Jun 2005 21:50:35 -0700, wrote:



Mitch Haley wrote:
on Macinac Island, Michigan,
[...] most all of the work is done by horses.

I recall reading an article in _Mother Earth News_ a number of years
ago which claimed that oxen are the most cost-effective way to till
farms of less than 5 acres.

[snip]

Dear Alan,

Few farms involving a horse or ox are only 5 acres or
smaller--that's only a square about 466 feet on each side.

Consider the phrases "40 acres and a mule" and "the south
40" for some perspective, along with the 160-acre Homestead
Act of 1862.

As for efficiency, a commonplace of European history is that
the invention of the horse-collar that allowed the beasts to
pull plows without being strangled left the ox behind.

The increased plowing ability (better plows were developed
to take advantage of the superior horse) led to the long
assarts of medieval Europe, in which even longer strips were
found to be more efficient than rectangles because less time
was spent turning the still-awkward rig around.

This is why an acre (field) is a strange strip, 40 rods (a
long furrow or fuhrlong) by 4 rods rather than a normal
square measure, x^2.

A single acre was what a relatively inefficient ox-plow was
expected to handle in a morning. Plowing five acres would
take a single week and hardly justify keeping the beast for
the other 51 weeks of the year.

Here's a somewhat ox-biased but enjoyable link on the
derivation of some of our quainter units of measu

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/custom.html

So far, my efforts to find an accurate calculator with both
horse and oxen units and fields for slope, wind, and cadence
have proved fruitless. By the time that Watt calculated what
he was pleased to call the horsepower, the use of oxen as
draft animals had largely ended in western Europe and the
U.S., even though the beasts last longer than the horses
that replace them and taste better.

An interesting link to the debate in the 1700's that ended
in favor of the horse:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:7... rses%22&hl=en

The lack of numbers and squabbling in this long-forgottne
reminds me of something or other, but I can't think what.

And here's how Watt actually decided that a horsepower was
746 watts:

http://www.web-cars.com/math/horsepower.html

Carl Fogel

It's not unbeleivable, but I rather imagine that attaining full efficiency of
draft animals takes many years of experience.

There's actually a number of old folks still available in America who do
have the experience, but how many of the wannabe Rainbow-Warrior
city kids really are prepared to apprentice themselves to fundamentalist
baptist families in nowheresville, Tennessee, to learn the tricks of the
trade?

The old folks would have to give the city kids low-end apprentice
farmhand wages for a few years, because that's all inexperienced
farmhands are worth.

There might be a school.
You might be able to hire on as a Old Order Amish farmhand for room and
board.
http://pittsburgh.about.com/cs/penns.../a/amish_2.htm
Technology & the Amish
The Amish are averse to any technology which they feel weakens the
family structure. The conveniences that the rest of us take for granted
such as electricity, television, automobiles, telephones and tractors
are considered to be a temptation that could cause vanity, create
inequality, or lead the Amish away from their close-knit community and,
as such, are not encouraged or accepted in most orders. Most Amish
cultivate their fields with horse-drawn machinery, live in houses
without electricity, and get around in horse-drawn buggies. It is
common for Amish communities to allow the use of telephones, but they
do not allow them in the home. Instead, several Amish families will
share a telephone housed in a wooden shanty in a nearby location.
Electricity is sometimes used in certain situations, such as electric
fences for cattle, flashing electric lights on buggies, and heating
homes. Windmills are often used as a source of naturally generated
electric power in such instances. It is also not unusual to see Amish
using such 20th-century technologies as inline skates, disposable
diapers, cell phones and gas barbecue grills, because they are not
specifically prohibited by the Ordnung.

Technology is one of the areas where you will see the greatest
differences between Amish orders. The Swartzentruber and Andy Weaver
Amish are ultraconservative in their use of technology - the
Swartzentruber, for example, do not even allow the use of battery
lights. Old Order Amish have little use for modern technology, but are
allowed to ride in motorized vehicles including planes and automobiles,
though they are not allowed to own them. The New Order Amish permit the
use of electricity, ownership of automobiles, modern farming machines,
and telephones in the home.

At least 2 different pedicab companies are actively in existence in downtown
area of Charleston, SC - mostly for the tourists as a "cheaper" alternative
to the horse drawn carriages.


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anyone in North America earns their living with a pedicab or
cargo-bike?